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By Julius Alabi, Akure
An alliance of 53 political parties which are interested in the growth and development of the state has been formed in Ondo State.
In a statement by the Coordinator and Secretary of the group, Prince Biyi Poroye Bill and Ebisemiju Oladeji, respectively, Ondo State Alliance of Political Parties (OSAPP) has come to stay, saying that the coming together of the political parties was aimed to develop the state.
According to them, the political marriage of about 53 political parties became necessary on the heels of the growing docile nature of our representatives across the three various legislative arms; State House of Assembly, House of Representatives and the Senate.
The statement noted: “We believe that we can never have a vibrant house (state and federal legislative arms) if all members belong to only one or two political parties. Experience had shown us over and over that this is suicidal to growth and development of our state as we are witnessing today.
“Rather than go for competence, character and courage, the electorate is usually bamboozled to vote for political parties without them having to know the particular candidate,” it stated.
It, however, stressed that the political parties have come together as a group to right this wrong by changing the narrative as we will no longer have a weak one per cent lead the remaining vibrant 99 per cent of us.
“This is the first time this will be happening in Ondo State and it will be unprecedented. This will reduce candidate expenses as parties will jointly campaign, canvass, mobilise and vote for a candidate during the election with aggressive publicity.
“The method and strategy of resolving on prospective candidate across the political parties have been put in place”, the statement noted.
It added that “members are conscious of the fact that 26 House of Assembly members, 9 House of Representatives members, and 3 Senate seat are available for political parties and candidate to occupy, therefore a sound commitment have been gotten from members to include political parties that do not feature candidate but are well structured across the state.”